My current research focuses on feminist philosophies of language and Irish novels and plays from the Romantic period to the present. In particular, I consider how Anglo-American "ordinary language philosophy" is extended both by feminist accounts of how power shapes language use and by formal experiments in Irish literature that shed light on the constructed ordinariness of English. I have a particular interest in popular Irish woman writers including Anna Burns, Sally Rooney, and Eimear McBride. One of my secondary interests is the writings of John Milton.
I received my BA in English from Princeton University, where I was the recipient of the Pyne Prize, the highest honor bestowed upon an undergraduate. I was awarded a George Mitchell Scholarship to pursue an MA in philosophy at University College Dublin. At Berkeley, I am funded by a Mellon Fellowship and a Kirk Underhill Fellowship. My research has also recently been supported by a Keough-Naughton Library Research Award in Irish Studies from the University of Notre Dame.
I am the co-editor-in-chief of qui parle, co-founder of the Townsend Center Contemporary Feminism Working Group, and co-coordinator of the English Department Romanticism Colloquium. I am a Designated Emphasis student in the Program in Critical Theory.
